Gas Tax by State Data / Guides
18.4 cents. It has been 18.4 cents since 1993, and that frozen number explains a lot about American roads.
How much is the federal gas tax per gallon in 2026? 18.4 cents on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel. That is the whole answer, and it has been the whole answer since October 1993. No president since then has signed a change to it. Congress has not indexed it to inflation. It just sits there, worth less every year, while everything it pays for gets more expensive.
Put it in the context of a fill-up. A 16-gallon tank of gasoline carries $2.94 in federal tax. A 13-gallon tank carries $2.39. Those are small numbers, and they are the reason every proposal to suspend the federal tax lands with a thud. At a national average around $4.37 a gallon, wiping out the federal tax entirely would cut the price about 4%. Research on past gas tax holidays finds consumers capture roughly 79% of a tax cut, with the rest absorbed along the supply chain, so the real savings would be smaller still. Suspending the federal gas tax is a headline, not a rescue.
The annual math is modest too. A driver using 500 gallons a year pays $92 in federal gasoline tax. Drive 12,000 miles a year in a 25 mpg car and you burn 480 gallons, which is $88.32 in federal tax. Compare that to the state layer: state taxes and fees averaged 33.5 cents per gallon for gasoline as of January 1, 2026, per the EIA, so the same 480 gallons carries about $161 in state taxes. The federal share is the smaller half of the tax on your receipt in most states, and a small share of the pump price overall. In January 2026 nationwide figures, crude oil was about 51% of the pump price, refining roughly 20%, distribution and marketing about 11%, and taxes about 18%.
| Fuel | Federal tax per gallon | Per 16-gallon tank |
|---|---|---|
| Gasoline | 18.4 cents | $2.94 |
| Diesel | 24.4 cents | $3.90 |
The federal gas tax funds the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for federal highway and mass transit spending. A fixed per-gallon tax in a world of rising construction costs and improving fuel economy is a slow-motion funding crisis. Cars go further on a gallon than they did in 1993, so the fund collects less per mile driven even before inflation. Electric vehicles pay nothing at the federal pump at all, which is why states have started adding EV registration fees instead. The 18.4-cent number is not just trivia. It is the reason the Highway Trust Fund has needed repeated transfers from general revenues to stay solvent.
That is also why the serious reform proposals are not about raising the rate by a few cents. They are about replacing the per-gallon model entirely: mileage-based user fees, indexed rates, or a bigger EV fee structure. A per-gallon tax made sense when every car burned gasoline at roughly similar efficiency. That world is gone. The tax that funded the interstate system is now a rounding error on your receipt, and the gap between what it raises and what roads cost is filled from elsewhere.
My take: the federal gas tax is the least interesting part of your gas bill and the most interesting part of transportation funding. At the pump it is $2.94 a tank, barely worth arguing about. As policy it is a 33-year-old price on a product the country is slowly moving away from, and nobody in Washington has figured out what replaces it.
See your state's layer: look up every state rate in the gas tax by state data table. Related reading: When Was the Federal Gas Tax Last Raised and Where Does Gas Tax Money Go.
18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel. The rates have not changed since October 1993 and are not indexed to inflation.
October 1993. The rate has been frozen for over 30 years, losing roughly two-thirds of its purchasing power to inflation.
Into the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for federal highway and mass transit spending. Because the rate is fixed while costs rise, the fund has needed repeated transfers from general revenues.
A driver using 500 gallons a year pays $92 in federal gasoline tax. At 12,000 miles a year in a 25 mpg car, that is 480 gallons and $88.32.
At $4.37 a gallon, the 18.4-cent federal tax is about 4% of the price. The rest is crude oil, refining, distribution and marketing, and state taxes and fees.
State rate changes, federal proposals, and the data behind the pump price.
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